The present invention relates, in general, to extruded frame members and cooperating snap-in panels for forming building partitions and the like, and more particularly to specific extrusion forms which are adapted to cooperate with panels having grooved edges for permitting quick assembly and disassembly, without the use of fasteners, of walls, partitions and enclosures.
In the construction and building industries, the use of extruded frames adapted to receive panel boards or the like to form partitions or enclosures has become a major building technique. Such construction has been used in a variety of forms, particularly for interior walls or dividers. Such frame-supported panel boards can be used to divide or partition large offices or warehouses, or may be used as outer walls for enclosures constructed to form temporary schoolrooms, outdoor shelters, trailers, and the like. Thus, there is an increasing need for portable, light-weight building structures which may be easily assembled or disassembled, and which are simple and economical to manufacture, while at the same time being substantial, durable, and suitable for a variety of uses.
In the past, many different designs and structural features have been suggested and used for these purposes; however, the light-weight portable structures now known in the art are not entirely satisfactory for several reasons. For instance, in many building enclosures which use extruded frames and panels, there is no uniformity in the type of extruded frames so that various designs must be used in different locations within the structure, thus complicating construction. Also, the panels and extruded frame members generally can only be applied to one specific structure, and a single design generally is not suitable for varying structures such as divider partitions, temporary schoolrooms or shelters. Thus, each type of structure must be specifically designed and extrusions and panels formed for the particular purpose to which they are to be applied. This tends to increase the cost of the use of such materials, rather than providing the economy which is essential for commercially competitive structures. If such panels and frame structures are not light weight, economical to manufacture, and simple to assemble so that the amount of labor and time required for fabrication of a structure is decreased, such partitions will not be able to compete in the open market with standard wall board construction.
Another area in which light-weight building enclosures of the type disclosed herein are particularly useful is in the trailer or pickup truck canopy art. Such canopies, which are in common use today on pickup trucks, are basically constructed of thin-walled panels carried in extruded frames. However, the prior art canopies are not collapsible, and thus require extensive periods of time to assemble and disassemble. Such prior devices generally must be fabricated as a completed, assembled structure at the manufacturer's plant and shipped as such, requiring special tools and equipment which are not generally available to the truck owner. Further, once assembled they cannot easily be stored when they are to be removed from the truck, because they cannot be readily collapsed. When it is desired to provide windows in the partition structures formed by the panels and extrusions of the prior art, it was necessary to cut out a section of the panel and insert specially formed window frame members. Such construction added to the cost of the partition, not only because of the wasted material from the cut out portion, but because additional special extrusions were required to form the window frame. Further, in such an arrangement, the window frame does not form a part of the panel supporting structure, but merely fits within the cutout, and thus detracts from the strength of the panel, rather than adding to it.
Another drawback to present day construction is that a large number of fasteners is normally required to attach the panels to the frame extrusions. Such fasteners not only detract from the appearance of the partitions so formed, but when they appear on the outside surface of the wall or enclosure, they produce additional openings, or breaks, in the exterior surface which may admit air or water, and which thus reduce the effectiveness of the structure. In addition, such fasteners must be individually placed and secured, thus making the assembly of such structures extremely time-consuming so that the labor costs in assembly override any initial savings in materials.
Although the prior art relating to building enclosures and structures describes many different types of partitions, window units, connecting extruded frame units, and the like, such presently known structural features do not eliminate the problems described above.